The Distribution System Operator’s (DSO) purpose is to connect customers with electricity. This valued and essential service is achieved via an electrical infrastructure that is:
- Pervasive and accessible across geographic extremes
- Inherent high risk due to electrical hazards
- Asset and capital expenditure intensive
- Requires a skilled workforce
- Experiencing changing customer behaviour and price sensitivity due to technological advances
- Essential for Energy trading
- Increasing community reliance for modern society
- Capable of additional revenue streams eg telecommunications, engineering & design services
To meet and manage customer service objectives of improving safety, reliable and affordable; the electrical infrastructure and workforce has increasingly leveraged digital technology.
Digital technology is a broad term for all electronic, power electronic, computing and software systems used to provide, process, transform, protect, distribute and transfer electrical infrastructure, corporate and customer data.
Current State
The DSO’s digital technology portfolio includes Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) including disciplines central SCADA Computing Systems, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Metering Systems, Telecommunications Systems and both Substation and Pole Mounted Protection, Control and Automation systems.
A majority of the technology and information is core to the achievement of Western Power’s current and future customer service objectives, unique to an electricity utility and key to development of the energy industry.
Currently at most DSOs, technology is service orientated and grows inefficiently in response to specific problems or through the initiative of individuals.
This leads to two risks to the achievement of enterprise objectives!
Issues / Risks
- Undiscovered, islanded or under-utilised technology and information leading to underutilisation of infrastructure assets, constrained capital and skilled workforce
- Duplicated / disjointed technology frameworks, skillsets, processes leading to inefficiency, employee disengagement and current/emerging network risk
Vision
<Insert DSO’s Vision – Technology or otherwise>
Proposed Strategy
- Identify and establish a representative technology leadership group
- Provide a single accessible/consistent/agile/clear governance/framework
- Review and revise asset strategies, engineering standards and operations processes
- Re-prioritise the investment portfolio, including divestiture of commodity business units
- etc
